Saturday morning, Stephanie, Randy, Jon and I all headed up to Huntsville to run the Texas Trail Run, the race formally known as Sunmart (the largest trail race in the US). Essentially Sunmart pulled out as the big sponsor after 19 years and they weren't sure if the race was going to even happen. Roger Soler Sports out of San Antonio put it on, but on a much, much smaller scale. The good thing about it though is Sunmart was usually a 50k/50mile race. This year around they did it as a 20k/50k, so those of us not in 50k shape were still able to race. There is no way I could have run the 50k just four weeks after IMFL. I wish my body worked differently, but it just doesn't work that way for me.
Our biggest challenge of the day was getting to Huntsville. Houston had a rare early-season snow/ice/winter storm on Friday, leaving many frozen streets, bridges, highways, etc. We left around 5:45am and saw quite a few wrecks on I-45 in town. We never felt unsafe and just drove very cautiously on our way up there. The temp slowly dropped from 30 or so in Houston to 22!!?!?!? when we hit Huntsville State Park. I was excited, Stephanie was excited...I'm not so sure about Jon and Randy. Jon had run a bit up there before, but Randy had no idea what he was in for.
I had planned to run 2 miles before the 12.5 mile race, then 1.5 after for a total of 16 miles as a long training run for the Houston Marathon. I certainly had no intention of racing. The other passengers in my car had the same intentions (no racing), but that changed for them as soon as the gun went off.
I had a fun race, as always in Huntsville. The snow was still on many of the trees, and it along with ice began to fall as it melted and the trees rustled in the wind. It was beautiful. My run was uneventful for the most part, except for the fact that the drinks were all frozen at the 2nd aid station - for some reason that kept me entertained for many more miles. Also there are many wood bridges during the second half of the trail, many quite long. After a while I started slipping and decided I was going to have to walk all the bridges. I slipped going up one because it was a bit steep, and Catherine, who was running with me, slipped coming down one of them. I certainly had no stellar time, and averaged around a 11:45 pace I think. That is somewhere around a minute slower than my long run pace on the street, which was about right for trails.
.
Something that surprised me is that this was not the same route used in the past when I have run the 50k (the 50k is a 10k loop and then two of the same 20k loops, the same loop we ran for our race). The first 4.5 miles or so, and the last 3-4 miles of the loop were the same as what I have done in the past, but the middle 4-5 miles were way different and way harder. In the past, we've mostly stayed on jeep roads and/or easy trails for that middle chunk. This time around I found myself in places I'd never been before, with far more ups and downs, roots, rocks, etc. It was still beautiful, and we ran across a dam I'd never been on before which was fun, but overall more difficult than in the past. You can just add that to one of the many reasons I'm glad I was not running the 50k! The jeep roads used to give you a little break - as much mental as physical as you did not have to fear every step was going to result in your body going somewhere you did not intend.
.
Somewhere during the second half of the race I decided I was not interested in running those 1.5 miles afterward. My legs were getting a plenty good workout and did not need any more. I finished and found my peeps and pizza and was ready to go. I saw Stephanie had a big award in her hand - turns out she won the 30-39 age group! I asked Jon and Randy how their run went and they just kind of laughed - I figured there were stories to come. I happened to see the results right before we left and saw that Jon got 2nd in his age group and didn't even say anything about it. I asked him and he said "well, I didn't want to brag." Whatever. I told him it was perfectly acceptable to get excited. I saw Randy got 4th in his age group, which apparently would have been 2nd had he not fallen and ended up in the bushes somewhere (two guys passed him when he was finding his way back out of the bushes).
.
I'm not sure Jon and Randy will be excited to hit the trails again, but Stephanie and I know we will continue to go back for more when we can.
Comments